On the sad anniversary (the 66th) of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) in a plane crash in Iowa, a couple of tidbits...
In this picture we see Peggy Sue Gerron, Buddy Holly, María Elena Santiago Holly, and Buddy's drummer, Jerry Allison. You've heard Buddy's song "Peggy Sue" from 1957. Most people figure Buddy had a girlfriend by that name, but such was not the case. Buddy and Jerry had written a song with a paradiddle drum beat and fit the words "Cindy Lou" into the beat to honor Buddy's cousin eponymously. But Jerry asked if they could change the title to "Peggy Sue" after he flipped over Ms Gerron. Buddy's girl in those days was the enchantingly-named Echo McGuire.
But that was a high-school romance that didn't last, and seven months from the end of his life, Buddy met and married María Elena, who survives him to this day. She was pregnant and heard the news of the fatal plane crash on the news, a shock that caused her to suffer a miscarriage. That tragedy led to the change in policy in use ever since in broadcast newsrooms under which such bad news is not broadcast until the next-of-kin are notified.
And speaking of flipping...you've heard of the legendary coin flips that decided who got the other two seats on the ill-fated plane. Waylon Jennings, bass player, lost his seat to Big Bopper before going on to fame in country music, but until his own death in 2002 was haunted by his taunting final words as the doomed three boarded the Beechcraft Bonanza: "I hope your damn plane crashes!"
The other coin flip loser was guitarist Tommy Allsup, whose seat went to Ritchie Valens when Valens correctly called "Heads."
Allsup would later own a Dallas saloon called "Tommy's Heads-Up Saloon."
No comments:
Post a Comment